


will of fire

by beetlejuice



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Feels, Gen, Naruto's the Hokage, but a hopeful angst, i gave you a hopeful ending?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-01
Updated: 2014-04-01
Packaged: 2018-01-17 18:48:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1398616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beetlejuice/pseuds/beetlejuice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kakashi is dead, but he continues to live on in those who remember him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	will of fire

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me.

Standing in front of a freshly engraved headstone the remnants of team seven pledged their dreams to the unyielding stone and the name etched within it.

 

“Just watch us sensei,” they said, “we’ll become stronger. Just you watch.”

 

In the dying wind they could’ve sworn they heard the faint sweet sounds of bells ringing in the air.

 

 

 

“No.”

 

The adamant refusal only made the Sixth Hokage’s grin grow and Sasuke felt a vein twitch in his forehead at the blonde’s smug expression. “I can make it into an order you know,” he said, his voice alight with humor.

 

Sasuke scowled. “I’ve never passed any of the brats you’ve deigned to give me so far. What make’s this next batch any different?”

 

Naruto only shrugged, resting his chin in the palm of his hand. His impish smile softened into something more wise and knowing. The look made something in Sasuke’s chest ache. “Tch. Fine, but don’t come crying to me when I send their sorry asses back to the academy.”

 

Naruto only grinned at him as Sasuke slipped out the window giving him the one-fingered salute as he disappeared.

 

 

 

The chime of two bells brought him the three genin’s attention, wide-eyed and curious. A part of Sasuke almost wanted to smile at them even as his chest ached at the memories blurring past and present together.

 

_“If you don’t come at me with the intent to kill, you’ll never get the bells from me.”_

 

He blocked the genins’ attacks mindlessly and thought back to how stupid they were when they had been this young (so, _so_ stupid).

 

None of them managed to get a bell from him except this time he ended up tying up some stupid loudmouth to a tree stump for attempting to steal one of the bento boxes (like Naruto, like Jiraiya, like so many before her).

 

_“None of you are fit to be shinobi.”_

 

He should’ve failed them, but they had a familiar fire in their eyes and it made something in Sasuke wake up and take notice.

 

“I’ll give you one more chance,” he offers, “but none of you are to feed your teammate.”

 

The final test, the one everybody fails.

 

Well, almost everyone.

 

“Here,” the boy with dark eyes and green markings on his cheeks says. He hears the weight of the boxed lunches move. They disobeyed his orders.

 

His chest feels like its going to burst, like there’s a storm crackling just under his skin. It takes him a second to realize that he’s grinning.

 

“You,” his voice is loud and furious as he appears in front of them, their faces frozen in guilt and terror even as his face softens into something resembling a smile, “pass.”

 

Confusion settles around their shoulders like a physical thing.

 

Sasuke holds the two bells between his fingers, allowing them to sing in the wind and he can almost hear Kakashi-sensei’s voice, strong and sure saying the very words that had defined their team’s shinobi way.

 

Today, he finds himself repeating those words. “In the shinobi world those who break the rules are considered scum, but those who abandon their comrades are even lower than that.”

 

He looks into the eyes of his team and find’s the old team seven staring back. His own eyes, dark and angry and so very lost; Naruto, with conviction and dreams and pure stubborn will burning like fire in his and Sakura’s soft, forgiving eyes holding strength beyond measure and stubbornness that could match Naruto’s blow-for-blow. Different eyes stare up at him now and Sasuke finds a smile tugging at the edges of his stern lips.

 

_They’ll do_ , he thinks fondly as their excited yells fade into the background of his mind. As he listens to the wind he can almost hear his sensei’s voice and the distant ring of familiar bells and the familiar curve of one visible eye smiling at him.

 


End file.
